Rural Movement
Rural Movement Laanlig Wegang Landelijke Beweging | |
|---|---|
| Chairperson | Niklas Umberts |
| Founded | January 8, 1917 |
| Preceded by | Welland Farmers' Political Movement |
| Headquarters | 3-7 Imbersjri, Maanro, Welland |
| Ideology | Agrarianism Nordic agrarianism Centrism |
| Colours | Green |
| Political position | Centre |
| Election symbol | W |
| Parliament | 0 / 568
|
| Esquarian Parliament | 0 / 23
|
| Provincial Diets | 24 / 2,078
|
| Provincial Chancellors | 0 / 15
|
| Website | |
| http://www.laanlig-wegang.vy | |
The Rural Movement (Vyvlander: Laanlig Wegang) is a minor agrarian political party operating in Vyvland. It is one of the oldest continually-operating parties in the country, although it has no seats in the Vyvlander Parliament. It is most popular in rural areas of the country, with the party generally receiving its highest vote shares in the provinces of Brudon and Welland. It performs best in elections to the Provincial Diets, in which it holds seventeen seats in total.
The party membership and voter base is concentrated mainly in farmers and other agricultural workers, with some support also coming from rural residents with a non-agricultural background, especially retirees. The party advocates the extension of various subsidies and benefit for farmers, having become something of a single-issue party since its once broader support base has been taken over by the Liberal Party. The Rural Movement is relatively socially conservative, with centrist economic policies.
The Rural Movement is one of the oldest parties continuously active in Vyvland, having been founded in 1917. It reached its peak in the early 20th century, holding 46 seats after the 1927 general election. After the Vyvlander Civil War, the Rural Movement continued as a political force in North Vyvland, and as a notionally independent bloc party in the Parliament of South Vyvland. The latter party merged into the former in 1983 months after Vyvlander reunification, and since then the Rural Movement has remained extra-parliamentary despite occasional strong showings in provincial and local elections.
Since 2000, the party has had multiple drives to make itself more appealing to a wider audience; proposals discussed include a name change to Centre Party, with the aim of increasing the wider appeal of the party and disassociating the name with the old Nationalist Movement, which held power in the former South Vyvland, and making the party's policies more widely applicable and broad. However, almost all measures have failed due to the structure of the party, which requires members (overwhelmingly farmers) to vote on all changes to the party's structure, organisation and policies. Only through a majority vote can the party's platform or structure be changed.